How to Transform Your Ideas Into Software Products

Book excerpt: Create products people will pay for before they're even built. You have an idea in your head. Maybe even more than one! But you're stuck simmering on it because you just don't know if it's the right one to pursue. You're wondering whether people will even use your product, let alone pay for it. The uncertainty is overwhelming, so you do ... nothing. But what if you were confident that your idea would help people? How would you feel if you turned your passion into a living, breathing software product ... and you made money from it? Poornima Vijayashanker has founded 3 startups and personally guided 100+ people who have launched products that make 6 and 7 figures per year. Everyone started with varying levels of technical and business know-how-or none at all-but everyone was passionate about an idea. Now, Poornima travels around the country teaching people how to bring their ideas to life. With the right roadmap in front of you, you can launch a winning software product too. "But I don't know how to code or run a business." The tangled world of startups and software development is intimidating and hard to navigate. To start with, not every entrepreneur knows how to code. Even the ones who do still need other skills to succeed; they need to design a good user experience, figure out how to attract paying customers, and hire and fire technical talent. There are hundreds of tools and services to help build products, and they need to know which ones are useless and which ones will save them time. They'll eventually run out of cash to keep paying rent and developing, and will need to figure out whether to get investors, apply to an accelerator, or bootstrap. Trial and error takes years of research, setbacks, and heartache ... not to mention a lot of money. You could go to design school, teach yourself how to code in the off-hours, and spend thousands of dollars testing marketing campaigns. Or you could... Follow a proven guide for turning your ideas into successful products (and even 6- to 7-figure businesses). This book will teach you how to: - Validate your idea before you spend time and money on it. - Talk to prospective customers without feeling awkward or pushy. - Leave competitors in the dust with good design and positioning. - Save time and heartache by building only the features people will actually use. - Hire talented people to build your product for you. - Get more paying customers with scrappy marketing strategies. - Find money to fund your business. This guide includes time-tested strategies and tools that entrepreneurs love: Over 13 case studies with the inside scoop on companies like Mint.com, AirBnB, and Zappos. The exact systems and tools Poornima and other startup founders have used to build rock-solid products. 7 interviews with successful startup founders and early employees like: - Melody McCloskey, CEO & Co-Founder of StyleSeat - Brittany Forsyth, Head of Human Relations at Shopify - Ben Congleton, CEO & Co-Founder of Olark - Julia Grace, Head of Engineering at Tindie - Thomson Nguyen, CEO & Co-Founder of Framed Data - Alyssa Ravasio, CEO & Co-Founder of Hipcamp - David Cummings, CEO & Co-Founder of Pardot